Agreed. Something I say many times is that there is a difference between a photographer and someone with a camera.IMHO not everyone who posts on the internet could actually be considered "a photographer," or even "a hobbyist."
Agreed. Something I say many times is that there is a difference between a photographer and someone with a camera.IMHO not everyone who posts on the internet could actually be considered "a photographer," or even "a hobbyist."
i really like the word enthusiast over hobbyist. i’ve never considered that word before.rharris1 had asked:
Do you consider 35GB a lot of data for photographs? and the response was "yes!"
Yep. Way too small. Aside from that, IMHO not everyone who posts on the internet could actually be considered "a photographer," or even "a hobbyist." Some people just snap off photos a few times a year at family gatherings, on holidays and when vacationing in new areas. The rest of the time the gear lives in a drawer or cabinet. Or in a pocket.... Even those who quickly snap off cell phone photos of their breakfast, their lunch or their dinner to share on Instagram may be more interested in the social aspects of that action than in the fact that they're taking a photograph.
From Adorama, a vendor of photographic gear:
5 Desirable Qualities Every Good Photographer Should Have - Adorama
Being a good photographer is more than just mastering your camera — it’s about the inherent qualities that allow you to capture beauty.www.adorama.com
Five Desirable Qualities Every Good Photographer Should Have:
I think most people who are really into photography, who are truly serious about it and who engage in it on a fairly regular basis (I prefer the term "enthusiast" to "hobbyist" or "amateur") have most of the qualities listed above, but in particular the one thing shared in common would be passion.
- Creativity and Imagination. Photography, for all intents and purposes, is a form of art. ...
- An Eye for Detail. ...
- Patience and Flexibility. ...
- Good People Skills. ...
- Passion...
With floppies and Zip disks I think the bigger issue was the drive itself failing. The media is usually fine.
having only ever used iMacs as my primary/need to back up computer since 2008, I was surprised when I recently read that some people who use MBAs/MBPs are using SD cards as their time machine backup, since it can just live in the computer (leaving out the non-built in sd card years). how bad of an idea is that? because otherwise for time machine you'd need to be hooked up to an external/nas on a very regular basis.
If I were to say that playing piano is a hobby of mine but all I did was slam on the keys with no knowledge of the instrument or music theory, would you agree it's actually a hobby?but as a hobbyist/enthusiast, why does skill matter? why isn't passion alone enough?
i actually would. if a person spends time and enjoys it then i’d consider it that person’s hobby.If I were to say that playing piano is a hobby of mine but all I did was slam on the keys with no knowledge of the instrument or music theory, would you agree it's actually a hobby?
but as a hobbyist/enthusiast, why does skill matter? why isn't passion alone enough?
for a paid photographer, i absolutely agree that skill matters, and I cringe at a lot of the work of "professional" photographers. if someone is taking money, then their images had better be to a certain level (although defining that level gets difficult, and if a client is okay with crappy photos, then maybe even that shouldn't matter).
but I honestly don't understand why we have to have a skill level of xyz to be considered a hobbyist photographer.
from merriam webster:
there is nothing in the very specific definitions that implies skill is a necessary trait.
- photographer: one who practices photography, especially, one who makes a business of taking photographs.
- photography: : the art or process of producing images by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface (such as film or an optical sensor)
An Internet search of, "how long do SD cards last?" will yield a lot of answers like this one:Completely false statement. I was wanting to know how long my SD cards will last.
1TB SD CARD???? Geech that’s as big as my MacBook Pro hard drive! Who would need that kind of space?An Internet search of, "how long do SD cards last?" will yield a lot of answers like this one:
How Long Do Memory Cards Last? - Improve Photography
How Long Do Memory Cards Last?. In response to my article entitled "9 Things Photographers Need to Know About Memory Cards", Richard Cole and Aloha Lavinaimprovephotography.com
Stacked MF RAWs get big.1TB SD CARD???? Geech that’s as big as my MacBook Pro hard drive! Who would need that kind of space?
Well, of course skill and technique matter, whether one is a paid professional or an enthusiast shooting and subsequently sharing his or her work. Don't most of us who share images on the POTD thread try to present images which have been shot with at least some level of skill so that they are reasonably pleasing to view? Occasionally one will actually even have that "wow!" factor.
I think most people who are actually not all that interested in photography and who, as I mentioned earlier, only pull out the camera for holidays, family gatherings and vacations probably (a) don't have much skill and (b) don't care one way or the other and (c) don't consider themselves "a hobbyist." Ditto for those who whip out their iPhone to shoot a picture of the meal they've just been served in a restaurant so that they can share the picture with all their friends on FB, Instagram and such. They snap the picture, send it out into the stratosphere to land in their friends' various social media accounts or text/messaging accounts and stick the phone back into their pocket.
Probably at the point where someone is interested enough to be spending a fair amount of time and energy in learning and practicing a given endeavor, such as photography, that's when they themselves and others might consider them as a "hobbyist," regardless of their skill level. However, chances are pretty good that, yes, along with their interest in photography the skill level will have advanced beyond the point of simply taking out the camera, making a shot or two of something that they see and that's it.
What was important about the article was its title and contents, which is: How Long Do Memory Cards Last?1TB SD CARD???? Geech that’s as big as my MacBook Pro hard drive! Who would need that kind of space?
A memory card can last from a few seconds to perhaps a decade or two.Almost all modern memory cards can withstand at least 100,000 Program/Erase Cycles, and some cards can withstand as many as 10 times more cycles than standard cards.
I'm fine with agreeing to disagree....I just think if someone is interested in an activity and they do it regularly, then it's a hobby by definition, regardless of skill.I think our definitions of "hobby" definitely differ in some ways! I am an avid reader, have been for most of my life, but it would never occur to me to call that "a hobby."
Stamp collecting may not involve a skill per se as far as creating the stamps and such, but isn't there some skill and/or development of knowledge involved in knowing what is valuable or potentially valuable as opposed to common everyday stamps? To use another example of something regarded as "hobbies" if one stops in a store such as Hobby Lobby or Michael's, there are all kinds of arts and crafts materials available for purchase there to support people's hobbies, whether they include beading, needlepoint, cross-stitching, sewing or scrapbooking, etc. Don't most of those activities require some skill development along the way?
With regard to sports, sure, someone who goes to sports activities regularly (an adult attending adult sporting events or watching them on television, not parents attending their kids' sports games) probably does consider that a hobby in and of itself, which it would be, given that it requires time and interest and often money to engage in that. No skill in performing the actual sport required there but presumably the regular fan (perhaps even a former participant in the sport as a child or adolescent) does actually have or develops enough knowledge and appreciation of the game or activity to recognize when someone is doing something really well or when they are not.
Food photography as practiced and executed by both enthusiasts and professional food photographers who carefully set up the scene, plate and position the food and utensils in a specific way and light everything to show the food at its best is quite different from Joe Blow sitting in a restaurant pulling out his iPhone and quickly snapping off a snapshot of his meal that has just been served so that he can share it with his 1800 best friends on social media IMHO is NOT a "photographer." He's a snap shooter recording a record of his meal for posterity, for whatever that's worth.
We'll just have to agree to disagree on this.....
Oh, and I'm with your son here -- yes, biking requires some skills and I agree with him that someone who does it only casually and/or infrequently can't really claim that it is a hobby. Riding a bike to the store and back isn't quite the same as doing a serious ride. I'm glad that your daughter is enjoying photography -- she'll develop the skills as she goes along, it takes time, as we know.....
i think a cell phone camera user is as much a photographer as someone with a point and shoot or a full ILC kit. i think that is where you and i differ. you dismiss phone users out of hand.That's really intriguing that by some folks reading is considered a hobby.....Wow! One learns something new every day......
I think the part of your post, "someone is interested in an activity and they do it regularly" is the key to all of this in the first place, something which I guess got missed in all my usual excess verbiage when I was trying to make this very point.
Someone who only pulls out the camera or the cell phone to shoot when on vacation or with the family during a holiday or other celebration is not, then, going to be considered a "hobbyist," right?
how absurd! All these words offer zero explanation on why an SD card is so fragile! ?A couple of things-
We all have to start somewhere.
Many people will click away with their phone for years and never get anything more than snapshots. My wife probably hasn't touched a "real" camera in years but I'd also guess that she may have taken more photos in the last month than I have.
With that said, she would never say that photography is a hobby of hers. She has, to my eye, taken some impressive photos but they're mostly just documenting her life.
At the same time, there are a couple of old sayings like that everyone has to start somewhere, and the best camera is the one you have with you. Most people have a smartphone now, whether or not they even realize it has a camera. For some people, it's just a convenient way to share a recipe(been watching my wife have photos of those fly around with her family the last couple of days) or to remember where you were.
For others, though, maybe they find they enjoy taking pictures and start paying attention to what looks good and what doesn't. Maybe their "vision" evolves from there and they eventually realize that a phone may not do everything they desire and move on to a more advanced camera, or maybe they continue creating great art with their phone.
They you have the other example of accomplished photographers who might make a creative decision to undertake a project with just their phone or other limited equipment compared to what they "normally" use, or just to take a photo because something catches their eye and that's all they have with them. I have a good friend who's quite an accomplished pro(doing things like taking a lot of official studio photos for the Indy 500 and other events around Indianapolis) and seems to go in a cycle of deciding he's going to retire then getting sucked back into another project that interests him. I've seen some amazing iPhone work from him-both seen him taking it and also seen the results. I've seen him post a "just a crummy iPhone photo" that is better than what 99% of people can do with a full featured camera(although his "real" work is mostly now with a D850 or Z7). If Galen Rowell were still alive, I'd be shocked if a significant body of his work wasn't taken with a smart phone.
To the quality of results, though-some people are gearheads(I can sometimes fall that way) but I still enjoy getting results with them. Sometimes my work is crummy, and sometimes I get something halfway decent. Am I allowed to call myself a photographer because I don't always turn out good stuff? I'll leave that up to you all to figure out.
On hobbies more in general-I have been a collector all my life. I collect cameras, watches, fountain pens, and plenty of other things. To be a serious collector(not accumulator) there is a level of dedication involved. My watch collection is where I have probably dug the deepest. I've spent 10 years now compiling data to hopefully write an article on one specific watch I happen to really enjoy collecting(to the point of now over 50 examples) but every time I think I'm ready to put it together I find something new that just shakes everything up. To further my research, not only do I talk to others but I travel to shows/conventions(or did before COVID). I do things my wife thinks are crazy like call museum curators and make appointments to look at/handle items in their collections, and at the same time when I still lived in Kentucky I more than once gave opinions and/or appraisals for museums on donated or found pieces in their collection. I'm actually crawling out of my skin right now because I had a random email show up in my inbox a few weeks ago from someone who has a watch that made in the 1850s in my home town and wants to show it to me-I got photos and my outloud reaction was a couple of words I don't normally say. I called someone else who had looked at it and that guy told me he'd had the same reaction on seeing photos. That's a serious digression, though, I realize, but it's something that I think I can call a hobby.